Technologies

Are Shokz’ New OpenDots One Better Than Bose’s Ultra Open Earbuds?

With the proliferation of clip-on earbuds, Shokz is getting in the game with its premium priced $200 OpenDots One buds. I went hands-on with them to see how they stack up against Bose’s top-rated Ultra Open Earbuds.

While clip-on earbuds were kicking around the Asian markets well before Bose released its $300 Ultra Open Earbuds last year, it was Bose’s innovative design and marketing that brought this new style of earrings-like open earbuds to a worldwide audience and spurred others to release clip-on designs to the U.S market. Now Shokz, known for its bone-conduction headphones, has joined the growing clip-on crowd with its OpenDots One ($200), a more premium model that looks and feels similar to the Ultra Open Earbuds but lists for $100 less.

I’ve been testing the OpenDots One for a couple of days, comparing them to the Ultra Open Earbuds along with some budget clip-on buds that cost as low as $50. Here are my initial thoughts on the OpenDots One. Note that they do not use bone-conduction technology.

Read more: Best clip-on earbuds of 2025

Design

From a design standpoint, the Shokz OpenDots One measure up quite well to the Bose Ultra Earbuds. They fit my ears as well and maybe even slightly better than the Bose buds, which are quite comfortable. Like the Bose, they have a flexible connector that Shokz refers to as a JointArc and says «provides a gentle yet secure grip on various ear shapes» while noting that «soft silicone strategically placed on the exterior of the speaker further minimizes pressure, even during extended wear.»

As with all clip-on buds, the OpenDots One, as their name implies, feature an open design. That means the bud and driver sit over your ear canal and aren’t jammed in it like noise-isolating ear buds with silicone or foam tips. Open buds allow for sound to leak into your ears and are good for those who don’t like having ear tips jammed in their ears or want to hear the outside world around them for safety reasons. Shokz specializes in headphones and earbuds that are well suited for sporting activities and like its bone-conduction headphones, the OpenDots One offer a secure fit and work well for runners. They have an IP54 rating, which means they’ll provide protection from «light rain and sweat» and are also dust-resistant.

The touch controls take some trial and error to get used to. You can either tap the battery compartment or JointArc or «pinch» the battery with two fingers to control playback and answer/end calls. You can set the long tap and hold gesture to either adjust volume, activate your voice assistant or advance tracks forward and back. I prefer the Bose’s physical control button on its battery, which is also shaped like a barrel, but the OpenDots touch controls were fine.

Shokz OpenDots One Sound Quality

Shokz says the OpenDots One feature its Bassphere technology that «combines dual 11.8 mm drivers in a spherical module to replicate the performance of a 16mm driver.» They also feature Dolby Audio and Shokz’ DirectPitch technology, which minimizes sound leakage so people near you can’t hear what you’re listening to (or hear it very faintly anyway). You have to engage Dolby Audio in the Shokz App for iOS and Android and it does open the sound a bit and everything sound a tad fuller. It’s simply some form of digital processing and it’s unclear whether it impacts battery life but you can hear a difference when engaging it.

The sound of all clip-on buds changes slightly with how you position the buds on your ears (you can slide the bud up or down a bit to find the most comfortable fit but the positioning may impact sound quality). They also face some bass challenges because of their open design and tend to not sound as good as noise-isolating earbuds.

That’s the case here as well, although the OpenDots are among the best-sounding clip-on buds I’ve tested, which should be expected given their high price. That said, their sound falls a little short of the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds’ sound quality, even with Dolby Audio engaged. The Bose buds sound a little more open with a tad more bass and their tonal balance is slightly better (they sound more natural and accurate overall). It’s a relatively subtle difference but it is noticeable.

The main issue with cheaper clip-on earbuds is that they tend to distort a bit at higher volumes. The OpenDots One mainly manage to avoid distorting when you push up the volume. They play loud but not super-loud.

Shokz OpenDots One Voice-calling performance

Shokz headphones and earbuds tend to have good voice-calling performance and while the OpenDots One aren’t bad in the voice-calling department, callers did say they heard a fair amount of background noise when I used them on the noisy streets of New York.

At launch, the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds also weren’t great performers for voice calling with similar issues with background noise reduction. But Bose has subsequently improved the noise reduction with a firmware update (Bose also added multipoint Bluetooth pairing with the same firmware update). And while the Ultra Open Earbuds still aren’t top-notch for voice-calling, they’re now above average.

Shokz OpenDots One extra features and battery life

The OpenDots One have «Dynamic Ear Detection» that allows the earbuds to automatically recognize which bud is in which ear, so no left or right markers are needed. But otherwise their feature set is fairly basic. They do link with the Shokz App for iOS and Android, which «enables multipoint pairing between two devices, 4 pre-set EQ modes plus two personalized EQ, Find My Earbuds and more.»

The Bose Ultra Open feature Bose’s Immersive Audio for music spatialization. That’s the same feature found in the QC Ultra Earbuds and QC Ultra Headphones. As with those models, these buds have head-tracking, so you can set the Immersive Audio for Still mode that fixes the sound or Motion Mode that follows your head movements. Engaging it does enhance the sound a bit from standard stereo mode but I think it makes a more pronounced difference with the QuietComfort models. Also, engaging it does reduce battery life.

The Ultra Open Earbuds are rated for up to 7.5 hours at moderate volume levels but that number drops to about 4.5 hours with Immersive Audio on. The charging case provides an additional 19.5 hours of battery and has a quick-charge feature but no wireless charging option.

In contrast, the OpenDots One are rated for up to 10 hours of use on on a single charge, with an additional 30 hours of battery in the charging case, which does feature wireless charging. So the Shokz definitely have an advantage there.

Shokz OpenDots One final initial thoughts

The well-designed OpenDots One are among the best open earbuds out there right now and certainly have a place on our list of best clip-on earbuds. While they don’t sound quite as good as the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds, they’re pretty close and fit my ears slightly better and have better battery life. Like the Ultra Open Earbuds, which list for $299 but are currently on sale for $249, they’re overpriced, but at least they cost less than the Bose and their case does have wireless charging.

More affordable clip-on earbuds like the Baseus Bowie MC1 (about $50) or Tozo OpenEarRing ($30), don’t sound as good or feature as premium a design. But because these types of clip-on open buds are more for casual listening, not critical listening and just don’t produce the greatest sound, it’s harder to justify spending big bucks on them. In other words, the OpenDots are clearly superior to those budget models but not $150 better.

Shokz OpenDots One key specs:

Weight: 6.5 grams per bud
IP54 splash-proof and dust-resistant
11.8 mm drivers
Bluetooth: 5.4
Dolby Audio
Touch controls
Battery life: Up to 10 hours on a single charge and up to 40 hours with the charging case
10-minute quick charge provides 2 hours of playtime
Multipoint Bluetooth pairing
Wireless charging supported
Customize EQ modes and touch controls in Shokz App for iOS and Android
Locate your earbuds feature
Colors: Black or gray
Price: $200

Technologies

Forza Horizon 6 Focuses on Japanese Car Culture: Here’s What to Know

The racing series’ latest edition, out in May, includes stunning views of Mount Fuji.

Microsoft has given racing-game fans a deeper dive into the upcoming Forza Horizon 6, and on Friday announced a May 19 release date for Xbox and PC. Premium Edition buyers will get early access on May 15, but PlayStation 5 owners will have to wait until sometime later in 2026 to play.

The publisher provided a first-look video that shows stunning views of Japan, including cherry blossom-strewn rural roads, ice-enclosed courses, neon-lit Tokyo streets and plenty of views of Mount Fuji.

The game will launch with 550 collectible cars, and Microsoft will display two on the cover: the 2025 GR GT Prototype and the 2025 Toyota Land Cruiser.

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

Microsoft says the open-world game will focus on Japanese car culture, with the player in the role of a new arrival to the country guided by two close friends, motorsports fan Jordy and car builder Mei.

The locations will be divided into districts, ranging from bustling urban areas such as Tokyo’s Shibuya Crossing to suburbs, industrial docklands, and more rural areas.

What to know about Forza Horizon 6

Progress in the game will include unlocking new cars and more advanced races, plus a journal of digital mementos inspired by stamp collecting.

The game features eight player houses across Japan that serve as fast-travel points. And new to the game series is The Estate, a piece of land players can acquire and build on.

Inspired by Japanese car culture, Forza Horizon 6 will add Car Meets that’ll serve as social spaces for players.

The Standard Edition costs $70, the Deluxe Edition costs $100, and the Premium Edition, which unlocks early access and includes several Car Packs, costs $120. The game will also be a Day 1 release on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, and will be available on Steam and Xbox Cloud as well.

Technologies

TikTok Deal Will Keep It Online in the US, but Your Experience of the App Might Change

TikTok has secured its future by agreeing to split the US app from the global business. But the deal will spark changes to the app’s algorithm.

TikTok has dodged a ban and secured its long-term future in the US by announcing a deal on Friday that will see a joint venture take over US operations of the popular social video app. The deal marks the conclusion of a protracted battle over the app’s continued presence in the US, which dates back to President Donald Trump’s first term in office.

TikTok in the US will now be run by TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, which was established by a White House executive order issued in September 2025. At its helm will be CEO Adam Presser, previously the head of operations, who led TikTok’s efforts to ensure that the data of the app’s US users was kept secure. Shou Chew, the CEO of TikTok’s international operations, will serve on the joint venture’s board of directors.

«TikTok USDS Joint Venture’s mandate is to secure US user data, apps and the algorithm through comprehensive data privacy and cybersecurity measures,» the company said in a statement. «It will safeguard the US content ecosystem through robust trust and safety policies and content moderation while ensuring continuous accountability through transparency reporting and third-party certifications.»

The venture has three managing investors — Silver Lake, Oracle and MGX — which each hold a 15% stake. Oracle also will be responsible for protection of US user data and of the freshly retrained algorithm, which will be specific to the US version of the app.

Presidents Trump and Joe Biden raised concerns over a potential national security threat posed by TikTok, because of its Chinese-owned parent company ByteDance, which will retain a 19.9% stake in the new joint venture. During both of his presidential terms, Trump has attempted to ban TikTok, but also delayed the ban’s implementation.

The deal announced on Friday arrived moments before the deadline set by the White House for TikTok to comply with its September executive order. In a post on his social site Truth Social, Trump said he was «so happy to have helped in saving TikTok.»

«I only hope that long into the future I will be remembered by those who use and love TikTok,» said Trump. He also thanked China’s President Xi Jinping for working with the US and approving the deal. «He could have gone the other way, but didn’t, and is appreciated for his decision,» he said.

How TikTok might change for you

TikTok has more than 200 million users in the US, and if you’re one of them, the deal announced on Friday will allow you to continue using the app without the ongoing fear of it being banned.

It also won’t see you cut off from creators in China, or the rest of the world. People in the US will still be able to watch videos from Europe, such as last year’s viral «nothing beats a Jet2 holiday» trend. TikTok users outside of the US will still be able to follow their favorite American creators.

In the TikTok newsroom post, the company addressed interoperability, saying that the deal would «provide US users with a global TikTok experience, ensuring US creators can be discovered and businesses can operate on a global scale.»

Where the experience might change is in the content that is recommended to you. Under the terms of the deal, TikTok’s algorithm will be retrained, tested and updated based on US user data. This will have a knock-on impact on what you see on the platform, according to Kelsey Chickering, principal analyst at Forrester.

«TikTok’s power lies in its content graph — an algorithm that learns from thousands of user signals to deliver hyper‑relevant, highly addictive videos,» said Chickering. «With a US joint venture retraining that algorithm on domestic data, the experience will change — maybe for the better, maybe not. One thing’s certain: TikTok in America won’t be the same.»

In spite of the interoperability that will see US TikTok users connected to those across the globe, it does seem likely that the focus on US data will lead to a shift away from the global nature of the content that the algorithm currently serves up to you.

«TikTok’s US algorithm will now be trained on US data, which means what trends — and what dominates feeds — will feel distinctly American,» said Chickering. «Global content will still appear, but its ranking will change.»

Exactly how this will look may differ from person to person, and will likely take some time to come into effect as the joint venture begins the retraining process. TikTok didn’t immediately respond to questions regarding how long it expects retraining the algorithm to take, when US TikTok users should expect to be impacted by changes and whether it will issue public updates about this process.

One potential pitfall the company might want to avoid, Chickering said, is moderating the US version of TikTok in a way that tilts too far toward any one particular political viewpoint, or fails to curb misinformation. Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter (now X) — and his subsequent algorithmic changes that alienated users and advertisers — is a cautionary tale in this regard. With Instagram Reels already vying to replace TikTok, the company will likely want to avoid making changes that could spark a mass exodus of people.

«For now, it’s speculation,» said Chickering. «It remains to be seen how new leadership will wield this power and whether moderation policies will evolve.»

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Friday, Jan. 23

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Jan. 23.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? Hope you’re familiar with a certain blond actor (8-Across)! Read on for all the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.